MS3 Case Study

The York Solutions’ Barriers to Entry (B2E) program was recently featured in an article in The Atlantic, addressing the phenomenon of a worker shortage in the United States – roughly 6 million vacant jobs.

Wrong Places, Or Not Enough Faces? A Better Way to Source IT Candidates

January 16, 2018

The York Solutions’ Barriers to Entry (B2E) program was recently featured in an article in The Atlantic, addressing the phenomenon of a worker shortage in the United States – roughly 6 million vacant jobs. The article asserts candidates with the needed skills are indeed out there, but companies are looking for them in the wrong places due to “degree inflation,” a practice whereby companies are requiring a bachelor’s degree when a high school diploma or apprenticeship would do.

A respected, national magazine covering news and analysis on politics, business, culture, technology, national, international and life, The Atlantic quotes York’s Brandi Will in the article, talking about the importance of screening candidates for positions based on an assessment of their skills, rather than on whether or not they have a college diploma. The article points out York’s practice of speaking with job-seekers from non-traditional backgrounds — including stay-at-home parents, veterans and people seeking to change careers — and translating their experiences into a new kind of narrative for employers to consider.

The strategy of simply changing the semantics of the qualifications narrative, says Will, who oversaw the development of Barriers to Entry, “helps to change the mentality of the hiring manager.”

The article points out that programs like B2E help reduce the time companies must spend to make the shift from credentials to skills-based screening, and suggests that even though such programs they carry an added cost, they “may be the most cost-effective solution to an employer’s hiring woes.”

As support for the cost-effectiveness of such programs, the article references statistics from Gartner Research suggesting that employers lose about $407 per STEM-position vacancy daily—and that it took an average of 63 days to recruit for one of those roles in 2015. The article says certain employers, such as tech companies, are better equipped than others to move to the skills-based screening model due to existence and acceptance of college-alternate programs such as coding boot camps in their industries.

As an IT consulting firm that provides clients with custom resource solutions to fit their business needs, York Solutions’ services include both the B2E program, and our managed service staffing solution (MS3). Contact us here to learn more about partnering with York via either program.